From the Apr 24 – Apr 30, 2003 issue

Music

The Hiphop Tip

Father Afrika

With all the talk about hiphop club nights and their recent successes, the longest-running current hiphop/soul night in Seattle's history continues to pack the house every week. The Baltic Room's highly successful Jumbalaya consistently satisfies with good music and crowds of all ethnicities. The idea originated back in 1996, when Jasiri Media Group and Fuzed Music wanted to create a forum for live hiphop/R&B musicians in the city, so the members of Source of Labor and Maktub decided to start a weekly event. The night, Kiya, began at the 700 Club every Sunday with Vitamin D on the wheels and Wordsayer co-hosting with Nikol Kollars. Maktub were the house band, and the event's immediate success sparked off another night that turned into Jumbalaya on Fridays. After the 700 Club closed, Jumbalaya moved to the Baltic around 1999, and its evolution has brought out some of the city's best musicians, emcees, and vocalists, who get down improv style. Nearly everyone involved in hiphop or R&B in this city has been featured at Jumbalaya at one time or another, and the list of national acts is equally impressive: Mos Def, J-Live, Medusa, Gift of Gab, and Iriscience, as well as vocalists like Floetry and Saul Williams, among others. In between acts, Topspin and Vitamin D play the hottest club joints of the moment to keep the dance floor on its toes. Jumbalaya's main objective, according David Meinert of Fuzed Music, has been "to keep it quality, focused on good underground hiphop, live hiphop, and positive and conscious hiphop and soul."

I have to send a major shout-out to Nate Burleson, the former O'Dea alum who will soon be drafted by the NFL, more than likely in the first or second round. DV One and Dow Jones--who host the popular radio show The Takeover on X104.5 FM every Friday night--will be doing it big at Club Medusa this Thursday, spinning all types of joints at his pre-draft party.

This weekend is sure to be a busy one at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center as they take hiphop "Back to Its Roots" all weekend. This arts festival will feature live performances, spoken word, a gallery of visual art, and workshops to educate the community about the youth hiphop movement. Some of the performers this weekend include the Silent Lambs Project, the Prophetics, and the BYC dance crew, who made it to the semifinals at the Downtown Showdown earlier this month. Speaking of which, congrats go out to the Massive Monkees crew, who, besides having representation in four of the final eight crews at Downtown Showdown and ultimately taking the title, are also doing big things outside of the battle circuit. Juse Boogy of the Massive Monkees crew is getting flown--along with Circle of Fire--out to perform at the fifth anniversary of the Mighty 4 in the Bay Area, not to mention the Monkees are opening up for Black Sheep and the Jungle Brothers in early June. It's becoming more and more apparent that both the Massive Monkees and Circle of Fire keep doing bigger and better things as the months pass.

This Wednesday, April 30, at the Baltic Room, the DVS crew bring it the only way they know how for their once-a-month gig Boom Blast, which hits the last Wednesday of each month. Resident DJs from Wicked & Wild (Thursdays at the Noc Noc) Soul One and Johnny Horn bring the best in reggae/dancehall.

Mista Ock has finally come out with his debut CD, The Coldest Winter, released on MadPassion Entertainment. The album features Key and Diopolis of Central Intelligence and the production is mainly in-house. Ock definitely has personality on this album and strikes me as a sincere emcee. While his delivery is hit and miss, he has mad potential to make some noise in the near future, given the right opportunity.

And I finally got the chance to see the man who first recognized the culture that is now known as hiphop. The Founding Father of the Zulu Nation, Afrika Bambaataa, spun at the Baltic Room with his son TC Izlam and newly appointed member of the Zulu Nation DJ Scene (say WHUT!?!) in a packed house last Thursday. The crowd was interesting, to say the least. Although it wasn't the group I'd expect, it was dope to see many of the town's movers and shakers and several of the veterans and b-boys in the place shoulder to shoulder with "outsiders" who looked like they were having more fun than the heads. (I'll save that one for another column.) Nevertheless, I considered it a privilege to carry Bambaataa's records to his car at the end of the night, as 25 years ago, that job was untouchable to most cats who weren't part of his crew. I just wish my damn camera could take pictures in dimly lit spots. SAMUEL L. CHESNEAU

hiphop@thestranger.com

REQUIRED LISTENING

1. Brother Ali, "Star Quality" (Rhymesayers)

2. Gang Starr feat. Jadakiss, "Rite Where U Stand" (Virgin)

3. The D.O.C., "Tha Formula" (Ruthless)

4. Artifacts, "Art of Facts" (Big Beat)

5. Little Brother, "Speed" (ABB)

6. Kardinal Offishall, "Belly Dancer" (White)

7. Cunninlynguists feat. Masta Ace, "Seasons" (Boiling Point)

8. Snafu, "ComplexComplex" (Under the Needle)

9. Joe Budden, "Pump It Up" (Def Jam)

10. Scarface, "Recognize" (Rap-A-Lot)

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